UnderCover Changes
LSA Magazine has restructured to better embrace the fine art of
balancing stories and savings. It’s not a crime — or a punishment —
but our fingerprints are definitely all over the result.
WE ARE ALL — EVERYWHERE — BEING ASKED TO DO MORE WITH LESS.

Families. Small businesses. Townships. Museums. And, yes, public universities.
Just recently, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman testified before Michigan state
legislators about “shared sacrifice,” which includes across-the-board belt tightening.
Coleman is looking at a budget for next year that would be around the same amount
U-M received two decades ago, not adjusted for inflation. In other words, a lot less.
LSA Magazine isn’t waiting for the hammer to fall before we figure out how to be

part of Coleman’s call to shared sacrifice. Voluntarily, the magazine has reduced its
physical size. By trimming a little off the width, we’ve been able to cut paper and
mailing costs, which will save U-M thousands of dollars each year.
But we didn’t let the changes stop there.
Once we understood our size was going to change, our art director proposed a
comprehensive redesign that would make the magazine more user-friendly, more
contemporary, more streamlined. It means the focus of our stories won’t change dramatically, but the structure in which we tell them will. Our newly rebranded departments within the magazine include:

42.22˚ N, 83.75˚ W (the latitude and longitude coordinates of Ann Arbor) spotlighting stories across the Diag and in the local community.
THE MICHIGAN DIFFERENCE showcasing faculty, students, and alumni impacting
the larger world.
SPIN THE CUBE is chock full of interactive content — from puzzles to quizzes to stories that continue online.
THE LAST WORD is always an essay by someone like you: a reader with something
timely and honest to say.
We’re also placing more stories on the LSA Wire, the magazine’s online complement: www.lsa.umich.edu/wire. For a sampling of what’s there, check out “Entry
Points” on p. 4.
Our mission is still to be stewards of stories grounded in how Michigan faculty,
students, and alumni impact our campus — and our world — for the better. In that
sense, the magazine’s mission will never change. We simply are striving to better convey what makes Michigan so truly great.
Lara Zielin, Editor